Pubdate: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) Copyright: 2004 St. Louis Post-Dispatch Contact: http://www.stltoday.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/418 Author: Matthew Hathaway, Of the Post-Dispatch Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) AUTHORITIES AIM TO FIGHT METH LABS BY RESTRICTING THE SALE OF COLD PILLS A cramped office in Union is the unlikely nerve center of a 12-state lobbying effort that next year will square off against one of the most powerful forces in American politics - the pharmaceutical industry. There, in a tiny nook of the Franklin County Sheriff's Department, Detective Jason "Jake" Grellner is leading a campaign to cut off the supply of over-the-counter cold pills that have fueled the explosion of methamphetamine production across the nation's heartland. "To say that we're excited is an understatement ... 2005 is going to be our year," said Grellner, who has spent much of the last few weeks working with legislators and policymakers from across the Midwest. Their goal: to severely restrict sales of pseudoephedrine, the active chemical in scores of decongestants and the backbone of the $3 billion U.S. market for over-the-counter cold remedies. Earlier this month, Grellner headed up a closed-door strategy session in St. Louis with about 65 law enforcement leaders, politicians and legislative aides from as far away as Louisiana and Ohio. They want to pass state legislation in a dozen states next year that would label many pseudoephedrine remedies as "Schedule 5 narcotics" that would be available only at pharmacies and only if shoppers have their purchases and identities recorded in a database that police can access. Police estimate that 99 percent of the meth made in the United States is manufactured using pseudoephedrine pills. The proposed restrictions would not require a prescription for the medication but would limit sales. An individual would not be allowed to buy more than three boxes of the cold pills within a 30-day period. No restrictions would apply to the sale of pseudoephedrine remedies sold as gel caps, children's remedies or liquids because they are much more difficult to convert to meth. Supporters - led by police and prosecutors - say the Schedule 5 designation would starve meth cooks of the one drug ingredient that is common in virtually all recipes. They point to Oklahoma, where state officials say they've seen a 65-percent reduction in meth labs raided by police since the state enacted Schedule 5 restrictions in April. Opponents - including lobbies representing convenience stores, gas stations and the pharmaceutical industry - say law-abiding cold sufferers will lose access to effective medicines. The Consumer Healthcare Products Association, an industry group that represents makers of nonprescription drugs, has successfully fought off tough restrictions on pseudoephedrine for years. The group won't talk about how it plans to counter the Schedule 5 campaign, but a spokeswoman said the group supported less stringent regulations. The group says it's too early to tell if this year's drop in meth labs in Oklahoma is the result of that state's crackdown on pseudoephedrine. Proposals to put tough restrictions on pseudoephedrine are nothing new, but they don't often get very far. When police and Big Pharma square off on the subject, industry usually wins. But there are signs that the tide could be turning. Last week, Pfizer Inc. - maker of Sudafed, the leading over-the-counter cold remedy - announced that next month, it would release Sudafed PE, a decongestant sold in Europe. Instead of pseudoephedrine, the drug uses as its active ingredient a chemical called phenylephrine, which can't be used to make meth. But many police officers remain critical of Pfizer because they say the company doesn't plan to scale back production of regular Sudafed. Grellner, who turned 36 on Sunday, supervises a three-man narcotics unit that is one of Missouri's leaders in shutting down drug labs. He runs a federally funded pilot program that educates retailers across the state on how to recognize meth cooks buying drug ingredients and lab supplies. Recently, Grellner has added a task: talking to news organizations from across the nation - including the CBS program "60 Minutes," which interviewed him last week - about shutting down what some have called "the cold-pills connection." Meth labs are a personal issue for Grellner. In May, 2002, one nearly killed him. He suffered serious chemical burns in his throat and lungs after he inhaled too much anhydrous ammonia, a hazardous farm fertilizer used in some meth recipes. The damage was permanent, and he sometimes has difficulty breathing normally. The injury forced Grellner to change the way he works. He can't risk another exposure to anhydrous ammonia, so his days of kicking down the doors of meth labs are over. Instead, he's targeting the over-the-counter decongestants used in virtually all meth recipes. Grellner likes to compare the nation's meth-lab crisis to a serpent. "What we've been doing for years is slapping at the snake's tail with a shovel. We might be fighting it, but it doesn't do any good," he said. "But if you cut off the head, the snake dies. It's that simple." Missouri's law governing pseudoephedrine sales is a compromise with industry that Grellner helped write in 2003. It regulates where stores can stock the pills and forbids retailers from selling more than two boxes in a single sale. But that only makes pill-shopping more time-consuming for meth cooks, who simply visit dozens of stores to buy the thousands of pills needed to make a few ounces of meth. Grellner says he never believed that the law would slow meth production but that it would force cooks to spend more time in stores, where they might be noticed by alert police. Grellner said there was never enough support for Schedule 5 restrictions, until now. 2 different problems A former prosecutor and retired judge, Keith Rutledge is no bleeding heart when it comes to crime. As Arkansas' state drug czar, he favors tough enforcement and long prison sentences. But he says that's not the way to fight the nation's meth lab crisis, which he and most other Schedule 5 supporters say is distinct from the country's meth-addiction epidemic. "They are different issues," says Rutledge, who attended the St. Louis meeting organized by Grellner. "We can't eliminate meth use. But if we make it impossible to get cold pills, we eliminate the meth lab problem. That means we eliminate the danger to children who grow up in these places; we eliminate the threat to law enforcement; we eliminate the environmental damage each of these labs cause." Most drug experts believe that the vast majority of meth is made in California and Mexico by a small number of so-called superlabs - secret workshops that can turn out at least 10 pounds in a single day. In comparison, few Missouri meth labs produce more than a couple ounces of the drug. But dangers of small meth labs exceed their meager production. They often catch fire or explode, their fumes can poison children living in homes where the drug is made, and each lab creates about five times as much hazardous waste as it does finished meth. And the small labs are plentiful - more than 300 active or abandoned ones were found in Jefferson County alone this year. If the small labs disappear, addicts will simply buy drugs made at faraway superlabs, says Dale Woolery, associate director of Iowa's Office of Drug Control Policy. But he says that would be a huge improvement. Police estimate that 80 percent or more of the meth used in Iowa is produced somewhere else. But, Woolery said, because labs are such a serious public safety threat, police have little time or money to investigate imported meth. Iowa's Gov. Tom Vilsack proposed Schedule 5 restrictions early this year, but legislators rejected the idea after heavy lobbying by industry groups. Woolery said Vilsack would make another push next year, and that supporters of the restrictions now had momentum - and a successful example. The Oklahoma train "Oklahoma changed everything," says Grellner, who has been pushing Missouri legislators to adopt Schedule 5 restrictions on pseudoephedrine for years. Supporters of the Oklahoma law say it never would have happened without tragedy. Nik Green, a highway trooper, was shot in the head execution-style by a meth cook who was making the drug in a car parked on the side of a road. Green's pleas for mercy were recorded by the camera in his squad car. The killing enraged Oklahomans, and legislators unanimously approved the Nik Green Act, the name for the state's Schedule 5 restrictions. That opened a door for other states. Police in Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri say Oklahoma meth cooks are moving into their border counties and that legislators should push them elsewhere by adopting Oklahoma's restrictions. "What states need to decide now is whether to get on the train that Oklahoma let out of the station, or get run over by it," Grellner said. "There's 12 states that are going to try for Schedule 5 next year. Whoever doesn't pass it is (going to) be stuck with a lot of meth cooks." State Sen. John Cauthorn, R-Mexico, has prefiled a bill that would make pseudoephedrine a Schedule 5 drug in Missouri. State Rep. Scott Lipke, R-Jackson, will file similar legislation in the state House. Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon backs the restrictions, and Missouri Republicans said they expected Gov.-elect Matt Blunt to offer his support. In October, a spokesman with Blunt's campaign told the Post-Dispatch that Blunt would sign Schedule 5 restrictions into law. Similar efforts are under way throughout the Midwest. Grellner said Schedule 5 supporters were targeting Missouri and the states it borders, which last year accounted for more than half of the nation's meth labs and related ingredient stockpiles discovered by police. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek